Bren Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Just had my renewal through for my 2001 mondeo, it has gone up again despite another year of claim free motoring. I rang my insurer and a different one for a quote, had all the usual bullshit about insurance firms going bust, what they are paying out blah blah blah...... I explained to them both that I appreciated that during a recession like the one we are experiencing, people can be a bit naughty and try and fiddle things. However, during the good years under the labour government, when credit was like running water, it appears that these companies may not have put anything away for a rainy day. My point being that the cost of insurance has absolutely nothing to do with the number of claims, but is simply a case of seeing what the market can stand - just like petrol, gas and electricity.Frank Gallagher of shameless is spot on - under labour, the cost of everything went up (and no I am not a tory). A colleague of mine was a victim of a scam where the guy in front slammed on and my mate nudged the rear of his car (I saw the photos from the scene- there was not a mark on either vehicle). Five foreign males got out of the vehicle, you can guess the outcome - 5x claim for whiplash. My friend was incandescent with rage when the insurance paid out for the injuries without quibble - it is cheaper to do this than go to litigation. So maybe the companies are their own worst enemy. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catsinthewelder Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 I'm not a big fan of car insurance company's. Had a text through from Adrian Flux yesterday; "**URGENT**FROM Adrian FluxTO (me)policy xxxxxxxxxxYour renewal payment for (reg of my VW) has declined, please call us on xxxxxxxx I wasn't best impressed same as this is the first I've heard from them since taking out the policy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooters Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 I suspecy there is a lot of market rate fixing going on... car insurance is not optional therefore the OFT should be all over the industry ensuring competitive practices. Some of the increases I have seen in the last 12 months MUST be the result of colusion between insurers as some of the quotes are commercial suicide in a free market I would not be suprised if there is an exposee of this practice at some point in the future Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 I reckon there should be no mandatory car insurance, with optional comprehensive cover for if your own car gets damaged by someone else. I would happily run without insurance if I could, it's not like there's any point me ever claiming. It would knock all these whiplash claims on the head too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 I was going to refuse to comment on this, because we're all in the same boat and it's been done to death. But I will. You see, the whole industry is stuck in a spiral of escalation:- High insurance costs force people to drive uninsured, which in turn drives insurance costs up. Until the Government, here or in Europe, step in and regulate it properly, I can't see things changing any time soon. Certainly not while they collect Insurance Premium Tax on every policy sold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Creep Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 I did read the insurers are paying out something like £1.30 for every £1 they take in. Car insurance is a loss leader and they only make back their money on other insurance areas. We can thank the scumbags who claim for whiplash, bodyshops that take weeks and inflate their labour quote and hire companies that insist on giving everyone a brand new Mondeo whilst the car is being fixed. I really wish they'd ban these personal injury parasites or at least make it far harder to make a claim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tayne Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 I did read the insurers are paying out something like £1.30 for every £1 they take in. Yeah, I believe that one. That's why there's some many companies offering car insurance. Its a loss leader. If every insurer were making a loss, then (almost) all of them would get out of that business or there is a MASSIVE price fixing scam going on. And if they are losing money then they should stop spending so much money on annoying television adverts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trigger Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Insurance has got expensive, I got a quote yesterday for a Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDi Elegance and that was £550 fully comp with 10 years protected no claims and a Mondeo ST TDCi according to Sainsburys was £750!, I'm only paying £300 at the moment on the Bora, Somethings not right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polystratus Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Insurance has got expensive, I got a quote yesterday for a Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDi Elegance and that was £550 fully comp with 10 years protected no claims and a Mondeo ST TDCi according to Sainsburys was £750!, I'm only paying £300 at the moment on the Bora, Somethings not right. New insurance group ratings ? Think it's been extended to 50 groups now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greengartside Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Whilst we are on the subject of car insurance, is there such a thing as a grace period between swapping cars on your insurance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chester drawers Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 The insurance industry’s suggestion that price hikes can be largely attributed to personal injury claims is somewhat disingenuous. Exorbitant credit hire rates and “accident management†anyone? All quite legal and a nice little earner since broker and accident management company are frequently under the same ownership. Even when they’re not this particular scam would appear to be well overdue for some regulation. I recently watched some poor bloke lightly graze the back of a 1985 Corolla when reversing from a designated parking space. Said Corolla was on double yellow lines and a couple of feet from the kerb. Next thing you know he’s completely surrounded by some very unsavoury characters who work for one of these outfits. 20 minutes later the "victim's" piloting an X5. Go figure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tayne Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 A little bit of poking about on the internet has revealed some interesting figures. According to the DVLA* there are 31,035,791 cars on the road. According to the AA the average cost of car insurance is £792*. Doing the maths that leads to a total figure for insurance premiums collected of ...wait for it... £24,580,346,472! Now, I've found a rather vague article on an insurance website (which would surely overestimate rather than underestimate...) which states that the cold weather in december costed the insurance industry around £530million*.That would indicate that the worst month of the year has cost the industry approximately 1 weeks takings.Now if we were to assume that every month of the year cost the insurance industry as much as last december then they would still make a profit of £18,220,346,472. Loss leader?My arse! *Sources http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/new ... d-War.htmlhttp://www.theaa.com/services/insurance ... anceindex/http://www.cheapcarinsurance.co/2011/02 ... ce-claims/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddyramrod Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 hire companies that insist on giving everyone a brand new Mondeo whilst the car is being fixed. I really wish they'd ban these personal injury parasites or at least make it far harder to make a claim Hire cars: when I was injured in a rear-ender in 2003 I got a Corsa, for a maximum of two weeks. My wife, also injured when a car pulled out of a side road in front of her in 2004, got another Corsa, again with a time limit, which was a knackered bag of shit. Get me a lawyer, I want to claim compensation for not getting brand new Mondeos each time! Personal injury: oh yeah, make it harder. I was off work five and a half months, with bugger-all coming in. How long did the payout take? Two fucking years! Want to imagine the scale of my debts? Truck drivers don't get to build up savings, you know... A career change was forced on me too as I could no longer climb into the cab of a truck without quite noticeable pain. After two years of care work I went back to driving, but lasted a bit over 18 months as the pain returned. Yeah, go on, make it harder to claim. And yes, I am well aware there are plenty of scumbags around who will fake it. Penalise them, not the genuine claimants! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Station Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 !double post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Station Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Personal injury: oh yeah, make it harder. I was off work five and a half months, with bugger-all coming in. How long did the payout take? Two fucking years! I think he meant the 'have a splinter in your hand due to someone else's fault? Here's 300 pounds (while we take 75%)' sheisters. If every insurer were making a loss, then (almost) all of them would get out of that business or there is a MASSIVE price fixing scam going on. The insurance companies are raking it in, it's obvious, I don't need any proof, otherwise being an insurance broker would be akin to being a cleaner on the career desirability level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddyramrod Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 being a cleaner on the career desirability level. Go on, guess what I was doing from September 1995 to May 1997? In Tesco, of all places... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuvvum Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Go on, guess what I was doing from September 1995 to May 1997? In Tesco, of all places...I didn't know Tesco were selling car insurance that far back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddyramrod Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 You know fully well that's not what I meant... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Creep Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 hire companies that insist on giving everyone a brand new Mondeo whilst the car is being fixed. I really wish they'd ban these personal injury parasites or at least make it far harder to make a claim Hire cars: when I was injured in a rear-ender in 2003 I got a Corsa, for a maximum of two weeks. My wife, also injured when a car pulled out of a side road in front of her in 2004, got another Corsa, again with a time limit, which was a knackered bag of shit. Get me a lawyer, I want to claim compensation for not getting brand new Mondeos each time! Personal injury: oh yeah, make it harder. I was off work five and a half months, with bugger-all coming in. How long did the payout take? Two fucking years! Want to imagine the scale of my debts? Truck drivers don't get to build up savings, you know... A career change was forced on me too as I could no longer climb into the cab of a truck without quite noticeable pain. After two years of care work I went back to driving, but lasted a bit over 18 months as the pain returned. Yeah, go on, make it harder to claim. And yes, I am well aware there are plenty of scumbags around who will fake it. Penalise them, not the genuine claimants! There are genuine claims - I know full well after I had whiplash following a pretty bad crash. Someone at an old work once reversed out and hit an X5, a distance of 2-3 meters. Lo and be hold, 5 whiplash claims and a massive repair bill that totalled nearly £30,000. That is what we need to be stamping out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cavcraft Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 How much of it is down to the insurance company's stupidity though? I've been rammed twice by people insured with Direct Liars. On both occasions I had to get a solicitor involved at some expense to the bunch of wankers and in the case of the second accident I ended up with a hire car for fucking weeks and weeks. As regards spurious claims for injury I believe it's almost a vicious circle for some people. Their insurance goes through the roof when they've never made a claim so as soon as someone scratches their bumper at the traffic lights they bang a claim in to get back some of what they've had to cough for over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete-M Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 A seven seater private hire cab with six passengers in a big enough bump to requre the cab being off the road for repairs for a few weeks can easily cost the insurance company £100,000 by the time everything is settled, and that's without any injuries bar whiplash. The whiplash recipients will average out at £2-2.5k each. The car repair / replacement costs normally come to less than £20k. Loss of earnings for the whippy claimants might come to £25k in total. Problem is, everyone in the middle takes a huge cut (which the insurance pay). Go down any main street in any city and you'll find 'No Win, No Fee' solicitors and claims companies somewhere. That's where the insurance premiums end up, and that's why they're going up. If people stop putting whiplash claims in for the slightest tap then insurance premiums will stop rising. The Germans how now introduced a minimum speed of impact for whippy claims, the UK is looking at following their lead. Problem is, the solicitors are all saying "they've got to prove it".... so there's still a long hard fight ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dollywobbler Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Insurance companies are proper f*cking stupid. I ended up in court over little more than a technicality all to get my £150 excess back - the third party paid up for all of my other costs, some £2000 to repair my 2CV. Must have cost thousands between the two sides and there was absolutely no case to answer for. Really wasn't very happy about that. No wonder premiums end up higher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stroller133 Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Insurance is a strange business with no clear view on where our money goes. Bear in mind the huge cost of selling insurance in the first place - advertising costs are massive and then you have broker and other vendor fees - I would guess about 25% of the money doesn't even go to the insurer. Comparetheconfusedelephant.com will take a big fee if you buy through them. The more savvy customers will use cashback sites such as quidco so you get the fee refunded to youself. If I could have completed buying insurance online I would have got back £80? Some are owned by banks who could use of the increased premiums to subsidise losses elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Espacetic Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Just a few things to add.First of all, I saw this the other day about price fixing... http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011 ... gation-oft Secondly, personal injury. I was hit in the side about 6 weeks ago in Sainsburys car park, silly old bat reckons she didn't see something the size of a Peugeot 806 and decided to reverse straight out, continuing to do so even though she met resistance! She tried blaming me as I "shouldn't be parked there", even though I was at a junction giving way to an oncoming car. I pointed out she was lucky it was an 806 and not a baby in a pram and politely informed her she shouldn't be driving if she couldn't see me, so she paid up. About 2 days after, I started getting neck pains and I've still got it now. Would I claim? No, I bloody wouldn't! I've always hated with a passion this American style compensation culture thats appeared, I don't want to add to it. As for insurance prices, you really have to shop around. Few years back I gave the NFU a try and they're great. Recently I've moved house, so my car was no longer garaged. No extra charge. Changed car, no extra charge. Not even the industry standard £30 "admin fee". They even emailed my policy to my local office on the spot so I could tax my car same day.My renewal came through and it was £20 dearer than last year. With the horror stories I've been hearing of peoples renewals being up to £700 dearer, I was mighty chuffed. Even so, I still find it a rip off.I'm touching mid 40's now, never had a claim in my life, clean licence held for donkeys years but still my insurance is a tad over £200.The same insurance on my modified Cortina, fully comp but with no no claims bonus added is £80 a year. At current market values, if the 806 was written off they'd pay maybe £2k. Cortina would be £6k.How does that work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete-M Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 One thing about insurance that winds me up is area loadings. Any Liverpool postcode from 1-20 attracts the same roughly 100% loading even though the areas are completely different. A few of the large insurance co's have call centres here - but won't insure cars parked in the same area as their offices... Thing is, it appears to be based on car crime statistics from 25 years ago, and L'pool is one of the safest big cities in the UK - yet premiums are up there with Tower Hamlets even in the leafy suburbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Creep Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Just be thankful you're not a new driver. I've seen plenty of stories about teenage males who are paying over £2500 for theirs. To think I was angry about paying £1000 for my first year.............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Station Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 One thing about insurance that winds me up is area loadings. Any Liverpool postcode from 1-20 attracts the same roughly 100% loading even though the areas are completely different. A few of the large insurance co's have call centres here - but won't insure cars parked in the same area as their offices... Thing is, it appears to be based on car crime statistics from 25 years ago, and L'pool is one of the safest big cities in the UK - yet premiums are up there with Tower Hamlets even in the leafy suburbs. Tell me about it! I've metaphorically banged my head against the wall so many times over that I might make a personal accident claim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaryoldcortina Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Here's an odd thing. I heard an advert for this on the radio today, and decided to take a look at their website - http://www.insurethebox.com uses a technology they call "telematics" Basically, it is pay as you go motor insurance BUT you have a GPS/GPRS "black box" in the car which tells the insurer how far, fast, where and when you drive. Now, I build these things myself for fun, but I don't like the idea of it telling anyone else what I'm up to... It's pitched at young drivers at the moment (as a price reducing gadget - "like a pay-as-you go phone" says the advert) but I'm wondering how long before you can't get insurance without having the box fitted..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warren t claim Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 You aint seen nothing yet! All ladies can expect a large insurance hike after the first of march due to the fact insurance companies will no longer be able to use the sex of the proposer to load policies. 21ty old males may benefit a bit though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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